London, September 09: Prominent British Muslims welcomed on Tuesday, September 08, the conviction of three Muslim men for plotting a terror attack, but warned that government anti-terror powers should not paint all Muslims with the broad terrorism brush.
“It’s a good day for counter-terrorism, it’s a good day… for the police and the military,” Hanif Qadir of the Active Change Foundation (ACF), told Reuters.
A London court convicted on Monday three British Muslims for plotting to blow up planes flying from London to America with home-made liquid bombs.
Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 28, Tanvir Hussain, 28, and Assad Sarwar, 29, were found guilty of planning to kill thousands of passengers by detonating bombs disguised as soft drinks on board seven planes while in the air.
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Four other men were found not guilty of involvement in the suicide bomb plot.
British Muslim leaders hailed the verdicts of the landmark trial, which prompted the current restrictions on liquids in 2006, as fair.
The convictions showed that the UK “rule of law works,” said Inayat Bunglawala of the umbrella group the Muslim Council of Britain.
He also added that British Muslims were as horrified and appalled by the trial as ordinary Britons, “perhaps more so because it reflects unfairly on themselves and their faith.”
Mohammed Shafiq, of the Ramadhan Foundation youth organization, also welcomed the verdicts.
“There are people within our community who try to use our faith to make political points and to use violence and that’s against our faith and it’s against our community and we’ve got to come together to defeat it.”
Britain is home to a sizable Muslim minority of 2.4 million.
Concerns
“Whatever the outcome of these trials, people do not associate ordinary Muslims with the actions of what is clearly a very tiny minority,” stressed Bunglawala.
British Muslims, however, warned that the trail should not mask the flaws that afflict the government anti-terror policies.
Qadir, whose charity organization works to tackle Muslims’ recruitment into extremism, warned that would be a “conspiracy theory” over the convictions among some young Muslims.
“Locally I know the concerns and the language that the young people are going to be speaking.”
Bunglawala explained that Muslims’ mistrust in the government is the reason behind conspiracy theories.
Measures resorted to by the government in recent years – such as control orders monitoring uncharged terrorism suspects – have left Muslims feeling persecuted, he noted.
“We should not be taking people’s liberty away if the evidence is not there to justify it.”
British Muslims have been in the eye of the storm since the 7/7 London bombings in 2005, enduring a growing Islamophobic climate.
They have repeatedly complained of maltreatment by police for no apparent reason other than being Muslim.
A Financial Times opinion poll showed that Britain is the most suspicious nation about Muslims.
Bunglawala stressed that officials need to be careful not to use the broad terrorism brush in indiscriminately painting the entire Muslim community.
“We need to ensure that whatever the outcome of these trials, people do not associate ordinary Muslims with the actions of what is clearly a very tiny minority out there.”
-Agencies